Becoming One of Them
by K. Lynn Perks
Summary: What if Merlin, Arthur, Morgana and Gwen were merely teenagers in a very non-magical world? What if they were forced to attend Camelot Boarding School instead? This story follows their lives as ordinary teenagers who battle extra ordinary things.


**Disclaimer**: I do not own Merlin!

**Summary**: What if Merlin, Arthur, Morgana and Gwen were merely teenagers in a very non-magical world? What if they were forced to attend boarding school instead? This story follows their lives as ordinary teenagers who battle extra ordinary things.

This story is obviously AU. Right now it is rated T but could progress to M.

Please leave a review and let me know what you think!

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**Becoming One of Them: Camelot Boarding School**

**Prologue**

I didn't want to go to high school. Places like high school generated pillocks and slags; it reeked of superiority and failure all at the same time. I didn't find myself fitting in with either sort of group setting. I was just and always Merlin. Yet, my Mother had risked a lot to get me into Camelot Boarding School. We barely had enough money to put food on the table, but there she was scrounging up anything and everything simply so I could get the very best education.

"You are special, Merlin," she would tell me, and I'd piss and moan about how utterly normal and unspecial I was.

And that was because I wasn't special. I was merely Merlin; a 17 year old boy who barely had the capacity to do simple arithmetic or recite historical anecdotes. I was better off working with my Mother. She was a seamstress, and one of the most brilliant seamstresses I had ever seen (and I'm not being biased because she's my mother). I had seen her turn rags into riches, cottons into corsets and stockings into silks.

She was magic.

"Come now Merlin, it wont really be all that bad." She handed me my usual satchel, the one I usually delivered fresh laundered clothes in, and then smiled at me. Somehow I felt like the broad smile was a way of cheating.

"Can't I just continue having my home lessons with Uncle Gaius?" I asked, knowing very well that it was a long shot and my mother had already warned Gaius from agreeing with me.

She pursed her lips together, "Boarding school won't be all that bad, and because your Uncle is Head Physician there I was able to get a reasonable price negotiated." She leaned in and kissed my cheek. Another form of cheating, of this I am certain. "Gaius will be with you there."

"He doesn't even stay at the school in the evenings," I protested, "he comes back here…" But she's already holding her finger to my lips and shaking her head.

"This is the first opportunity someone in our family has had in regards to a sure and proper education, Merlin."

As if she couldn't make me feel guiltier.

"I want what's best for you, Merlin, I can't stand to see you sit here and wash clothes with me for the rest of your life when I know of your true potential."

I feel my shoulders slump. She's won this round of course. Then again, she often wins every round.

I'm kissing her goodbye before I truly understand what is happening, but my Uncle Gaius is taking me by the arm and leading me out of the small house that I have found safety and comfort in my entire life.

"She only wants what is best for you, Merlin." He reminds me as we are walking through the outer part of town towards the car he drives to Camelot every morning.

"What's best for me is right here…" I mutter, but follow him to the car and climb into the passenger seat. I didn't bother placing my bag in the trunk. Everything I owned fit in the small satchel I used on a daily basis.

Uncle Gaius seems to take quick notice of this and makes a noise in the back of his throat, "I'll have to do something about getting you some more clothing. Can't have you stinking up the place with the same godforsaken clothes every day." He jokes.

As if this is supposed to make me feel any better about the situation. Normally I quite enjoyed my Uncle's lighthearted humor, but as the car pulls out of town I can only think about my Mother and everything I am about to leave behind.

The drive to Camelot isn't very far, in fact we arrive much sooner than I expected, although I can assume my brooding in the passenger seat may have distracted me from accurate gauging of time and space. Gaius pulls his car into the lot just outside the faculty entrance, and I sit there in silence as he begins rummaging through his medical supply bag in the front seat.

From where I am sitting I take in the enormity of the school, everything from the wide-open landscape in the backfields to the towers that seem to sweep the clouds. This is where I'm supposed to live for the next eight months? It seems cold and unwelcoming despite its elegant beauty. Gaius finally touches my elbow and warrants me out of my daydreaming; my drifting off has been a problem ever since I was a child.

"Come on now Merlin, it's a magnificent place I assure you. Just look at it again…"

And I do.

I look back over the fields, which seem lush and full of natural beauty, although the castle seems cold I can't deny that the structure itself sings of a secret royalty that has remained hidden all these years. Still…

"I'm not going to fit in here." I say in a matter-of –fact tone, but open the passenger door and step out of the car.

Already someone is slamming up against me, and I knock my hip hard into the corner of the vehicle. I'm fairly sure my hip has shattered into several separate pieces.

"Ow!" The yelp that escapes me comes out far more feminine then I would have liked.

"Watch it, pouf." A blonde boy, I'd guess about my age, shoots me a look and then continues walking off with his friends towards the fields. I can hear them laughing at my expense, one of the larger boys mimicking my cry of pain while the others join in the laughter.

I brush my plain blue shirt down and adjust my satchel, "Well, he certainly seems charming."

Uncle Gaius is locking up the car behind him, and then moving around the side of the vehicle towards me. His gaze shifts over towards the boys who have made it a good distance away from where we are still standing.

"Ah, yes well, he isn't the most pleasant fellow here in Camelot." His features distinctly tell me that the blonde pompous prat has given him trouble in the past.

"Well his _royal highness_ ought to watch where he's walking." I begin following Gaius up towards the school, although I take another moment to look back over my shoulder in the direction of the laughing boys.

"Just mind yourself and pay no worry to boys like that." He pats me on the shoulder as we reach the ascending steps.

"Kind of hard to avoid someone when I don't even know who he is," I mumble, my hip still throbbing in pain.

"It's not so much _his _name you ought to worry yourself over," Gaius' voice has noticeably lowered, "It's his father you need to be respectful of. His father is Head Master of this school," he sighs, " Headmaster Pendragon."

We reach the door and Gaius pulls it open.

As he ushers me inside I faintly hear him add, "And that was his son, Arthur…Arthur Pendragon."

So should I continue this or no? I always wondered what life would be like for the group if magic did not exist. What if they were all just normal teenagers forced to befriend each other the old fashioned way? Well, PLEASE leave a review and let me know what you think. The more reviews I receive the faster my muse pushes me to write!

Thanks!


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